Annie Oakley & Wild Bill

We have the sads.

Mom got home last night from work - running to get everyone fed and get changed and then pick up the kid to help at the shelter.

Only she looked into baby jail....

Annie had run for the Bridge.  And Wild Bill was dying.

She called Grandma to tell her she wouldn't be picking up the kid, sent a text to let them know she wasn't coming to the shelter and called the vet to say she was on her way. She held Bill the entire drive and whispered to him that it was OK to leave and be with his sister. He died at the vet's office.

The very nice Dr Mr Myers walked in after everything had happened and expressed his shock and offered to look at the kittens to see if he could find a cause of death. Annie had poly cystic kidney disease - there wasn't much that could have been done for her. Nothing conclusive on Bill. Though they did test for panleuk and it was negative.

As mom types this, Doc and Sally are wrestling in the cleaned up baby jail (mom is also doing laundry). They are twice the size and twice as active......maybe it just wasn't meant to be.

But Wild Bill and Annie Oakley were loved and safe and cared for.....and they had a name. Safe journey babies....there will be many there to meet you and keep you safe.

You can only laugh.......

Mom says it is a good thing she has a sense of humor.....

Thanks for the words of encouragement. It means a lot to mom. She got a little choked up reading some of your comments. :)

Oh and to @Furries - Silver is pretty snotty. She has an upper respiratory thing. Silver has been very good about eating, but Friday afternoon she was acting a little more....blah. Mom thought she was a little dehydrated - which can happen when she is eating little bits at a time (of canned food)....so mom had the rescue lady give her fluids to give her system a boost. And it must have worked. :)

Annie and Wild Bill got baths on Sunday.....they were a mess. Mom is hoping since they are getting their teeth in, she can start to wean them. That is the plan.

Oh - and baby-jail has been resurrected:

Annie trying the food - first and only time so far

Silver trying to figure out what is going on

(and yes, she has gone INTO baby jail to check out their dinner)

aww - Annie on the left, Wild Bill on the right

Here's the laugh or cry part of this: yesterday during lunch at work, she got a text from Bug's mom. They have seen Grandma around the house. With.....4 white kittens. (mom says she is having problems typing this without laughing) We know, it shouldn't be funny, but......

For now, Bug's family is keeping on an eye on the kittens (the neighbor can see them from her screened porch). Depending on how the weaning goes, mom may get them next weekend. We just don't want Grandma getting ideas and moving those kittens. And we tell mom it could be worse - she could have 6 bottle babies (wow - she went pale when we brought that up).

Finally Friday.....

Mom picked up Grandma last night - she was about 5 years old. She was lactating - so she most likely was the mom of Annie and Wild Bill, but rather than freak her out more, mom just let her go. One more baby factory closed....the tech said it looked like she has had several litter over her life and her ear tips had been lost to frostbite (mom thought she might have been spayed looking at her ears). We are glad Bug's family is committed to teh TNR - for that, bottle babies can be taken care of.....  :)

And don't forget to visit Tucker & Finn to help them support Back in Black 2 along with Best Friends!!

Hey - the man in the blue shorts stopped at our house the other day!!!

We "borrowed" mom's magic card and ordered some books for...her - yeah, that's right. :)  Miss Chrystal over at daily dose of dogs wrote a book - and of COURSE we had to get that. You can get your copy by going to xlibris.com. We can't wait.....  And then we also got Cat Daddy and a Cheezeburger book.  We know what mom is doing this weekend......

Of course, Tommy had to inspect the box to make sure everything was OK. Too bad it isn't big enough to climb in and take a snooze.

And, we can't leave you without some cute for the weekend....

Not what we planned....

Mom got an email about a week ago from.... Bug's mom!!! Not a Bug update though - they have a momma cat and kittens and needed some help and suggestions.

Mom looked back at the blog and realized not all of you may know about Bug. She was found Labor Day 2010 and was mom's first (and really only) bottle baby. That is the tiny white kitten you saw yesterday. She is now a year and a half old. Her mom says she isn't too wild about new people but LOVES her daddy. You can read more about her here.  Mom got to scratch her ears and love on her a little. She has grown into quite the big girl!! And she is a biter too..... some people's kids (wait - that would be our fault - oh well).

But, the call was really about the mom and kittens. The goal was to leave the kittens with mom and keep an eye on them. But, the kittens were getting bigger and the kids were getting worried. Mom agreed to help them with the kittens and the goal was to trap the mom, give her time in a crate with the kittens until they were weaned and then spay/release mom.

Mom ended up taking the kittens and the trap was set. And we caught.....a male orange tabby. Took him to be neutered (one more stop on mom's adventure Tuesday). The family agreed to keep the trap and try again. As of this morning, they have 2 traps and caught: a raccoon and another orange male tabby. That momma cat is being pesky.

So, let's do a head count: there is us. Wendy and the kittens in the bathroom. Silver running around (mom gave up on the crate - it was an issue of contagiousness but mom figured that ship had already sailed and Silver was screaming in the crate). And now this:

the bigger one is the girl (Annie), the smaller her brother (Wild Bill)

Bug's new family doesn't live that close to us, but don't they look suspiciously like a certain tiny white baby picture from yesterday??? Anyhow, mom guess them to be about 3 weeks old. And yes....this means we have bottle babies unless that momma cat gets her furry butt in a trap (please please let her get in the trap). Oh, and mom says don't do the math and get the total number - it might make her look even more crazy than she really is. :)